Trouble Ahead

By the tens of thousands, steelworkers last week voted in one of the highest-stake elections in U.S. trade union history. Challenged was David John McDonald, 62, president since 1952 of the million-member United Steelworkers of America. Challenging was Steel-worker Secretary Treasurer I. W. (for lorwith Wilbur) Abel, 56, who for the past dozen years has worked only a few paces down the hall from McDonald in the union's Pittsburgh headquarters, sharing confidences, negotiating chores and administrative responsibilities.

The Steelworkers' presidential election had all the toothmarks of an uncommonly mean campaign for public political office. Both candidates spent weeks stumping at the plant gates while their hired flacks reeled off torrents of vituperative copy. To impress the union's 200,000 Negroes, McDonald's supporters put out juxtaposed photographs, taken at different times, showing Abel and Alabama's Governor George Wallace shaking hands with the same man--implying a link between Segregationist Wallace and Abel. To impress Roman Catholic members, Abel supporters spread reminders that Catholic McDonald had been divorced. The McDonald camp turned out a million hard-hat stickers emblazoned with the inspired slogan ALL THE WAY WITH DAVID J. Abel's handlers issued buttons in praise of his entire slate: CUT OUT THE BALONEY, VOTE FOR ABEL, BURKE, MOLONY.

Watchers & Watcher-Watchers. The voting took place in union halls across the U.S.; ballots were hand-marked and handcounted. There were poll watchers and watchers who watched the poll watchers. As the counting continued, there were claims of foul from both sides. The 3,000 Steelworkers of Puerto Rico, for example, complained that the bundle they had expected to contain ballots brought only campaign propaganda mailed from Abel's office.

At week's end some 2,900 locals (of a total of 3,203) had reported results. At that stage, Abel was leading McDonald by about 4,000 votes, but it would be at least ten days before all the voting was tabulated. After that, it would undoubtedly require several more weeks--in which to adjudicate charges and countercharges--before the winner would be known.

Either way, the issues of the McDonald-Abel fight were certain to reverberate like an anvil chorus for a long time in steel uniondom and in the executive suites of the industry. In his campaign, Abel accused McDonald of "tuxedo trade unionism," a euphemism for the charge that McDonald has been too friendly with Big Steel's management. McDonald, said Abel, had failed to keep in touch with local problems, had "swept them under the rug, and now the mound is so high you stumble over it."

To McDonald, Abel represented the forces that want to take unionism back to the bad old days, to the picket lines, bloody street fights, and a blind, unimaginative refusal to accept any of the compromises that are necessary to responsible collective bargaining.

Big & Bitter. No matter who wins the Steelworkers' presidency, the election returns had already set management to shuddering. The present steel contract runs out May 1, and negotiations have been suspended until a winner is declared between McDonald and Abel. And since his term does not expire until May 31, McDonald will remain in charge of this year's contract negotiations. Abel's forces already have won a clear majority of the union's wage policy and executive committees. A contract negotiated by McDonald could possibly be overturned by Abel's people. On the other hand, if Abel were to win, the McDonald forces would remain a big and bitter influence within the union and could upset an Abel agreement with management.

Thus, the industry figures that it can only run into trouble in its dealings with either side--and that fact points to a period of difficulty in the nation's most basic industry.

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